Pearl Anniversary Card

Just a quick post today to show you all the anniversary card I made for Tom's parents who celebrated their 30th Wedding Anniversary a few days ago.

Left: Topper with Sentiment. Right: lower part of the card, quilting effect with pearls

The finished card (apologies for the poor quality of the photo, it was quite late by the time I was finished with this card and I just couldn't get the lighting right)

I had an idea to produce a quilted like effect in my head for quite some time so I decided to try and execute it on this card. (All was done on the card inside) First I drew a line approximately 2/3 up my card to demarkate (sp?) where I should score and where not to, then it took some playing around to work out how to score, I am reasonably happy with the finish result, though I will play some more before I am happy enough to explain how I did it! (and also do not have the time to explain as I have to get to bed as we are leaving home in the early hours to get to the airport :D). Once the scored part was done I embellished it with pearls (30 for 30 years and one stuck inside for luck - this actually happened by fluke fitting in with the pattern but let's say it was intentional, at least that's what they think!). A tiny incision was made on the spine of the card to thread the ribbon through and I cut a piece of card to cover the ribbon ends and the scoring. The card was finished by adding a scalloped circle punched from the same card stock and stamping Happy Pearl Wedding Anniversary To You (this was fun as the stamp actually said happy anniversary to you in one long strip, so some careful inking was required to stagger the stamping and a separate pearl stamp was used in addition to my careful stamping).

Sorry for the ramblings, I really wanted to get this done and published before leaving, I must rush off to bed now, thank for reading,

- Rebecca

Autumn

Being at the beginning of autumn I suppose it is no surprise that several blogs out there have Autumn themed challenges this month (I am rather late this month in getting entries for these completed!). I love everything about Autumn, I think it may actually be my favourite time of the year (and no not just because I was an October baby!), the chill in the air that isn't too cold like it can be in the winter, the autumn foliage and autumn walks in my wellies (read - intended walks which end up with me consuming my body weight in blackberries) kicking up the leaves. The challenge theme was at the forefront of my mind the entire time I was planning and then producing these projects, I hope you agree that they are definitely autumnal, even if you don't like them.

Card 1

The idea for this card popped into my head when I was trying to sleep (as most of my crafty ideas seem to do, sometimes it actually gets too much and I head downstairs to craft, fortunately this was not one of those times!). The concept is fairly simple leaves (by Oakhouse Studio) stamped in the same colour as the card stock they were stamped on to and then the edges were inked. I inked the green card stock before sticking it to my card. It was always my intention that ribbon would run along the bottom of the card but I spent forever deliberating on which ribbon, the colours of anything I attached to the ribbon etc etc. Below is part of the thought process I went through;

Once again I was not happy to just leave my envelope plain I needed to make it just a little bit different, keeping it simple I stamped a row of leaves in the colours I had used on the card. This card was much admired by those in this house, to the extent that it was asked if I had any plans for it and when I said that I did not it was immediately snapped up by Tom's mum for her friends birthday :)

Card 2

A simple principle, but (at least I think) a fairly effective end product. I masked the centre of the plain scalloped card off using a sticky all over post it (available in W H Smiths) which I punched a circle out with my amazing fiskars circle squeeze punch! I then proceeded to stamp my leaves, lightest to darkest (Saffron Archival, Orange Blossom Archival, Cherry Cobbler Stampin' Up and a Brilliance tear drop in Coffee Bean). Next I removed the mask and stamped my sentiment (which as you can tell only just fitted, though for the sake of positivity let's say it was a perfect fit)! The finishing touch was to colour the flower and leaves of my sentiment in Cherry Cobbler and OHS Spring Green using a fine paint brush. As you can see I couldn't resist decorating my envelope a little :)

Well I didn't get around to completing a 3rd project in time, I guess this month has all just been a bit too much for me, I may blog the one I am working on at a later date anyway, I hope you all like the two I have managed to produce anyway :) Apologies for any ramblings, typos, inaccuracies or mistakes, this blogger is the tiredist (I know it's not a word, but for now forgive me) she has been in quite some time!!!

I would like to enter all of three of my autumn projects in the Oakhouse Studio's  'Autumnal Colours' Challenge. I would also like to enter Card 1 in the Inspiration Emporium 'Fall is in the Air' Challenge.

Thanks all for reading as always,

- Rebecca

Pastel Birthday Card...

....not exactly the most detailed brief in the world, yet off I went to the craft area, to gather materials and put my thinking cap on! This card was intended for a colleague of Tom's mum, who was born on the same day as Tom's parents got married, 30 years ago (I'm sure I will blog their anniversary card too at some point). I decided to make several cards that fulfilled the brief and to then let Helene choose the one she liked the most (and to try to sell the others).

30 Candles for the big 3-0!

This idea played out in my head for a long time before I was happy enough with it to put it to paper! The first issue being that to fit 30 paper candles on a card that card would need to be fairly long, not wanting it to become too heavily loaded I needed to balance the need for space with the sturdiness of the card, I folded a piece of A4 card in half and then carefully trimmed a bit off the end a little at a time until I had the correct size of card.The next problem was the envelope, it was clear from the very start that I did not have any envelopes in my stash that the card would fit inside, and my envelope board did not have measurements for a card of that size, so I called the Crafting Oracle, my lovely mum immediately set to working out the exact measurements I would need to create my own envelope, as you can see in the picture it is perfect, thanks Mum (her blog).

The candles are made from off cuts of paper found in my scraps bags (plural because even after a huge sort through and rationalisation of them this week, I still find myself with far too many to fit in just one or even two bags) and I would thus like to enter this card into Pixie's Crafty Workshop - Snippets Playground Week #144. First I calculated how tall the candles needed to be and the optimum width of paper for a 3-4mm wide candle, cut and measure all my strips (and a couple of spare just in case!), I then stuck dst in the middle of the strip (length ways) and also on the right hand edge. Next I used a barbeque skewer to roll the paper around being careful that it stuck together smoothly. I stuck the candles to the card I had made, the final step was to create the flames, for this I used my quickie glue pen to draw the shape of the flame and then put glitter on top (I had a slight accident with the glitter - in my attempts to blow some glitter from the card, I didn't think about how that gust of air would also send the pile of glitter on my paper flying in 100 different directions - oops - oh well I have now glittered my leggings, t -shirt and face, not to mention my computer keyboard!). 

A pastel floral wreath

Another card with the gorgeous floral wreath stamp borrowed from my lovely friend Zana. This card was fairly simple, the wreath was stamped and then coloured in using my WH Smith watercolour pencils in pastel pink and purple. Some of the flowers have been raised up using 3D foam and then gems were attached to each individual flower (purple on the pink flowers and pink on the purple flowers). It took me some time to decide on what to put in the middle of the wreath, once I had decided to put 30, there was more deliberation as to whether to use stickers or stamps, in the end I decided the number stamps I had were not appropriate for this card and used some gorgeous black glittery numbers, though I was slightly concerned that they were too small, what do you think?

Floral ink blended card

This card is like cards I have blogged previously, so I won't go into much detail on the process again. Ink blending in pastel colours with black flowers (2 raised on 3D foam) centered with co-ordinating gems (to the ink). A simple Happy Birthday sentiment (by Woodware, I've only recently discovered their stamps but have discovered how beautifully they stamp, even on linen card stock) was stamped in black ink before mounting the finished design onto black card stock (I failed to get it straight on the first five attempts, my mind wasn't up for concentrating particularly hard) and then attaching it to the card itself.

Flip Card

I absolutely love this Sizzix Flip-it die that I have borrowed from my mum (and I love all the others too, even without having them to play with!) and decided to use it with some free patterned papers (I can't remember which magazine they were from), to create an option for a 30th birthday card. This die set is brilliant, it has most of the shapes you need to complete this card, my only slight disappoint is the lack of straight edged squares (in fact I actually just measured and cut my own on my trimmer in the end as I didn't want wavy edges and the small straight squares were too small), but this doesn't put me off. I think I will make simple Christmas cards to sell using this die, once I am done with all the crafting that I have on my list to do by the end of this week!

I cut out the card and all the shapes I needed before sitting down to put it together, this was simple to do. After attaching the papers (on the back too, something I wouldn't normally do when selling a card in order to cut down on costs) and stamping Happy Birthday, I punched some butterflies out of the same papers and attached them down the middle to the card (to allow for some dimension and movement), I finished the butterflies by glueing a line of clear gems down their centres. 

Those that have read my previous blog posts will know that I like to decorate my envelopes too (especially when using cheaper envelopes), to make them a little more special. For this envelope I stuck a row of 5 butterflies in alternating papers, and then attached a second to the second butterfly in for some dimension, my finishing touch was again a row of clear gems stuck down the middle of the butterfly.

Tom's mum is having a tough time choosing between the Candle Card and the Flip Card, to be honest I'm not sure which I would choose either (though the Candle Card took literally HOURS)! *UPDATE* She chose the butterfly flip card, though thought maybe the 3 and the 0 should have been on the same side, what do you all think? I know I intentionally did it the way it is but cannot for the life of me remember the reason, my memory is failing me, I guess I am nearly another year older! Thanks for reading, I must get on I still have a 30th anniversary card, a baby card and a canvas to complete before we fly off to Sweden on Friday morning (and the anniversary card is for tomorrow!), not to mention another two cards to enter in the Oakhouse Studio 'Autumn Colours' challenge (HERE),

- Rebecca

Can you guess what it is?

My friend Zana was sent this link and thought of me, as soon as I saw it I loved the idea and decided to give it a go, fortunately between us Zana and I managed to get together all the tools necessary (or compromises, we can't always afford or have the space to buy the exact things needed for every project we like) and I was able to give it a go at my local crop. I am going to try to let the pictures talk as much as possible as this needs to be a quick blog post, too much to do, too little time, why does everything always need doing at once?!

The organised crafter inside me always likes to get all my elements together before piecing the whole project together (I know this isn't always possible but I am always a lot happier in myself when it is!) The tan card stock was edged in Sepia archival ink and the pink elements were edged in Dusky pink by Oakhouse Studio. Can you tell what it is yet? (N.B. I actually ended up using 5 pieces of the tan card stock, to make it easier to secure the hearts in place as the heart punch I have is smaller than the one used in the original design).

Once I had gathered all the elements (which I believe takes the most time in any project), it was time to piece them all together.

It's a cute little owl!

Back, Head and Front

The banner the owl is holding is from a Stampin' Up set (Banner Blast) and was stamped in Dusky pink by Oakhouse Studio before being punched out with the co-ordinating banner punch.

Left: the completed card with a little friend to stick inside (made using the Stampin' Up Owl punch using the same papers as were used on the main card). Right: the inside of the card.

Sleepy Owl (not sad owl as both Tom and his mum thought), next time I shall try something else with the eyes.

Thanks for reading my blog, I really enjoyed making this card and all credit for the inspiration and design goes to Bronwyn Eastley of Addinktive Designs, who in turn got the idea from Sharnee Torrents of Alarnee Creations, that's all for now folks, please come back to read more soon,

- Rebecca

Like a Christmas turkey

So I don't talk about it a lot and I don't want sympathy but I've been ill for a whole year now (give or take a few days) and the drs are actually finally trying to be useful! I'm severely deficient in magnesium, so I am having to stuff myself with many different forms of magnesium (hence the title of this post). I only mention this as the purpose of this post is to blog about a meal my Mum came up with as a magnesium rich meal to consume magnesium more naturally (I am still on a gazillion different tablets, oil sprays and bath flakes for the skin but I'd much prefer to be able to get it all from food). I cooked this dish for lunch yesterday and thought I'd share it with you all.

Ingredients (serves 1):

* 2 or 3 handfuls kale
* 2 tbsp puy lentils
* 2 rashers bacon
* 1 egg
* 1 tbsp mozarella (or any other cheese of your preference, grated)

Method:

* Heat 1 tsp of oil in a frying pan, get the pan very hot before adding the kale.
* Meanwhile cook 2 rashers of bacon in another frying pan until crispy
* Add the kale and ensure you keep the kale moving.
* Add the lentils to the kale and keep mixing.
* Once the bacon is cooked, turn the heat down on the kale pan and add the bacon to keep it warm.
* Fry your egg in the bacon pan (no oil necessary).
* Pile the kale and lentil in the centre of the plate. Top with the bacon, followed by the egg (I like it so the yolk will break and run over the rest of the ingredients) and finally a sprinkling of grated cheese (either your favourite cheese or whatever you have to hand).

The finished product (minus the cheese)

Presentation needs to be improved, but here is the meal (with chicken added as it needed using up!)

Leafy green vegetables (such as Kale) are very good sources of magnesium, as are many legumes and lentils (such as puy lentils). Another good source of magnesium is nuts (particularly almonds).

Thanks for reading,

- Rebecca x

Another Organisational Post

Just a quick post today, I just want to show you all one way I use to organise my stamps. The stamps concerned in this post are by Oakhouse Studio. When my first order from Oakhouse Studio arrived they were in a rather useful box so I decided that from then on as my collection of their stamps grew (regular readers will have already noted how much I like their products) I would keep them in that box.

My gorgeous (FREE) storage box for my OHS Stamps

Close up of the stamped image 

The next step was to decide how to store them within the box, I decided to opt for resealable bags. I then cut card stock to fit within the bags and stamped the image on to my card stock (writing in the top left hand corner which stamp set the images belonged to.

My collection of OHS stamps (stamped for ease of reference)

Thanks for visiting my blog,

- Rebecca

Ink Blended Backgrounds

First and foremost I must apologise for the length of this post. As anyone that has read some of my previous posts will know I have been practising making ink blended backgrounds lately, following a techniques workshop I attended, though I had used this technique before, so was ahead of some in the class! It has been lovely to rediscover this technique.

A selection of completed backgrounds

I have found that it is useful, once you've gotten into the mindset of making these backgrounds, to sit down and produce all the backgrounds at once and only then to get out all of your stamps and have a play with what you want to add to your cards. Sometimes the colours just shout a theme at you, other times I have found that it is harder to decide the theme to go with. An example of this is the second card from the right just told me to go with a seaside theme, whereas with the right most card it took a little longer.

Happy Birthday Card (entered in the Lavinia Stamps August Challenge - 'Add some glitter')

Thank You Card (entered into the Butterfly Challenge Blog - #13 Butterfly with a sentiment)

Thinking of You Card - in progress, this card needs mounting on a coloured background before being stuck on a card (for Tom's Mormor who is unwell at the moment)

Just for You cards

These cards were ever so quick and easy to produce, they are small cards made from the off cuts of other cards I've made (I don't like to waste anything as you may be starting to realise). I simply blended a couple of shades of brown, masking only the top of the card with my torn edge, and then stamped this lovely Geese stamp (that we accidentally borrowed from Barbara who ran the techniques workshop with my mum) and added peel off sentiments.

It is fantastic how many different looks you can get in a card with one simple technique. Thanks for reading, if you want to know anymore about how I've created these cards please ask and I will try my best to help with your questions,

- Rebecca x

N.B. I will create a further post at a later date when I have turned all of my backgrounds into cards :)

Even my masking materials are nice and colourful!